Mani Annie

Annie always notices when I get a manicure or pedicure. She usually drops to her knees and yells, “ooooh, princess toes!” I’ve painted my fingernails at home lately, and Annie sits there next to me and stares and asks questions. “Gonna color your fingers, Mama? Get princess fingers?” I don’t really get the whole princess connection other than Annie dubs anything pretty, “princess.” The other day, Mike made her some beautiful princess toast.

It was only a matter of time before she started asking me to paint her nails. I kept putting her off, because I didn’t have any polish that was safe for her. Yesterday I was heading out to run errands and before I left Annie grabbed my hand and said, “Mama? Today Annie gets princess fingers? Please?” How could I say no to that? I was princess toast.

I found her some polish at Toys R Us. When I got home, the first thing she said to me was, “Princess fingers, mama?” The kid forgets nothing. I sat her down in her folding chair and she was so ridiculously excited.

She kept saying, “Look Dada! Princess toes! LOOK! LOOK!”

When she wasn’t smiling for Mike, she was very serious.

Making sure I don’t mess up

I told her she had to be very careful because her fingers and toes were wet, and she didn’t want to ruin them. It was probably the longest she’s ever sat still.

Having me inspect her nails

Blowing on her nails to dry them

The polish was cheap (like $1.19), and it barely left any color on her fingers. But she doesn’t care – she thinks her fingers and toes are the coolest things EVER.

Showing Mike our princess fingers.

For the rest of the day, I caught her looking at her fingers and toes a dozen times. At one point we video chatted with my parents and she told them all about how “Annie has princess fingers like Mama!” It’s so obvious, but it never occurred to me that she wanted her nails painted because mine were – I just thought she liked the sparkle. And even though it’s frivolous, it makes me happy.

(She spent the rest of the night chasing Mike around, trying to convince him he needed princess fingers and toes, too.)

So, so sweet I just love me some Princess Toddler Toes! What kind of nail polish do you get that is not harmful? I have never heard of a “safe” nail polish. I have just always used regular old nail polish!! Yikes! Okay, now you’ve got me scared.

When my oldest daughter had just turned four back in 1997, she loved her toes painted. It seemed as if every day she was asking me to paint them. At the time I had an 18 month old and one who was in Kindergarten and so I was a busy mama, but I tried to take the time to paint her toes every now and then, but not nearly as often as she would have liked. One week was especially busy and I kept putting her off, telling her “tomorrow I will paint them – tomorrow” until finally, on a Friday evening February 14, right when her father and I were rushing out the door for a Valentine’s Date Night, she came up to me holding my bright red polish, “Pwease mommy…paint my toes?” Ugh. I could hear the car start up in the driveway. My husband was already rushing me because we were late for our dinner reservation. But I looked down at my sweet 4 year old and was about to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow” but something prompted me to instead say the word that she loved to hear most: “Okay.” So she sat down and I quickly began applying the polish to her pretty little toes, smiling up at her while I did it, and she was just beaming; she was so happy. When I finished, she admired my work and put her arms around my neck and said “Thank you, mommy!” My husband was tooting the horn by that time, and so I gave her a kiss and hurried out the door. I told my husband I was sorry, but that I had to paint our daughter’s toes. He rolled his eyes at me. Three days later on Monday, February 17th we drove up to our local mountains for a day in the snow. It was such a fun day! But on our way home, our car was hit by an oncoming car. No one was hurt except for my daughter with the pretty little red toes. She spent the next 6 weeks in the PICU hooked up to all sorts of machines – severe head trauma. Brain injured, just like that. I was devastated. She was in a coma, and all I could do was sit there and hold her hand. And pray. I felt so helpless. Every single nurse that tended to her during those weeks commented on those painted toes of hers. They would say things like, “Well now, aren’t those the prettiest little red toes!!” and “Oh my, look at those pretty toes! I love the red polish!” and I tell you, it made me SO grateful that I took the time to paint her toes that one night when I was in such a hurry. Such a small, trivial thing, but it meant the world to me at the time. I kept imagining that she could hear the comments, and that she was beaming inside, so proud of her toes. Ever since then, whenever one of my younger daughters asked me to paint her toes, 99.9% of the time I would stop what I’m doing and take the 2 minutes it takes to do it. I just always think back to that day 15 years ago when I was too busy to do it, but yet I did it anyway, and how much it meant to me in the weeks to come.

Nellie says:

Robyn says:

Of course she wants to be just like you. You’re the most magical, perfect, beautiful princess she knows!

I almost guarantee that Mike will one day have princess toes. There will come a day when she wants to paint his toenails, and he’ll cave. He’ll have his makeup and hair done on more than one occasion, as well. It’s part of being a little girl’s daddy.

Evelyn says:

Charlene R says:

Aww, come on Mike – let Annie make you prince fingers and toes (or at least toes). When my daughter was Annie’s age – her dad used to let her paint his toes blue!! Haha!!! She loved it and still talks about her dad’s blue toes and she is 10 now!!!

Kate says:

Heather-love this post! Late last year, Sophie started saying she wanted to have sparkly toes like me and I loved it. I started polishing her toes the same colors as mine after I went to get a mani-pedi. Yesterday, she went and got the polish herself, a clear sparkle polish, and I put it on her fingers and toes-so fun! And I have to admit, sometimes I paint her toes when I want her to sit still and focus for a few minutes! LOL. It’s the only time she will!

Heather says:

I have a 3 1/2 year old who LOVES having her fingers and toes painted. We use the nailpolish that dries in 60 seconds. It takes a little longer than that, but it works great for little people who can’t sit still for very long.

Heather says:

I have a mani/pedi at the hair salon about every three months and as far as my daughter is concerned having her nails done with Mom is the best. She has been going there since she was a baby so everyone dotes on her being a grown up girl. Yikes now that I think about it shw will be six and is a big girl not little.

Lisa says:

I took my 4 y/o about 3 months ago and we got pedicures together (her feet did not go in the bath btw). She LOVED it and now expects to go and have her nails painted as well, b/c they must MATCH. So, miss thing is all sots of spoiled. I will have too sneak off to get my toes done so I dont go broke. I use the 60 second drying polish on her- works great and really does dry in 60 secs.

Sue K says:

Stacie says:

You guys see to capture so many moments perfectly! At the risk of creating an uproar or many wrinkled noses, I will tell you that I have 2 boys and my oldest was just taken with my toes after a pedi when he was about 3 y/o. Ever since then, he wanted his nails painted too…much to the chagrin of my husband! I bought blue polish and did his fingers and toes. He loved it! I tried to keep it limited to his toes so he wouldn’t have to face harassment from other people. That worked until one day in kindergarten they did some project that involved feet and paint and he had to take his socks off. As far as I know, nobody said anything to him, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the teacher must have thought! He is now 7 and doesn’t ask for polish anymore. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this.

My husband has had princess toes, fingers, and a few princess make-up jobs. This is what happens when you have five daughters, my guess would be he could have resisted the older girls in the beginning, but with Mea he knows to just go with it.

This is clearly a “mom to a boy” question (although I have painted his toes before, heh) – what is “safe for kids” polish? I never realized you couldn’t use the regular stuff on their fingers? Is there a reason other than colour?

I think it’s something about the chemicals in “adult” nail polish. The stuff for kids doesn’t have the more toxic stuff, which is good since kids put their fingers in their mouths…or at least, mine does!

Jeanie says:

Crysi says:

So adorable! We use the Sally Hansen rapid dry, or something like that. I think we may own all the colors. I have 3 girls, 5yrs & almost 3yo twins. We try to paint nails once a week because it’s a good excuse to clip their fast growing nails. They remind me of Annie. They have to show & tell everyone about their pretty nails. It’s so funny & sweet.

Trisha says:

Man, that’s the part I worry about, having a little girl. I’m so not girly, it’s not even funny. I mean, I have long hair and like to wear a pretty dress every once in a while, but I’m totally not into nails, or the princess thing.

Thus far I’ve lucked out: the 18 month old doesn’t really care for dolls, and her favorite thing to do is to play with her Duplos, especially the animals. That said, I already catch her admiring herself in a mirror, and when we go out to the park, she totally looks at the dolled up nannies in awe.